Health
What will others think? Who cares! By ALICE O’BRIEN
Churchview Psychotherapy, Millstreet What would you do differently if you thought no-one could judge you? How would you live your life if you didn’t feel like you had to keep up a specific image, look good for others, or reach a standard that you don’t even like? Would your life be different if you cared less about what other people thought of your life, your decisions? As humans, we are evolved to hunt in packs, to not be isolated, and to be accepted. We develop the idea that we must fit in at any cost. This can be very limiting when we allow it to influence
the way we live, when we care so much about the opinions of others that we forget to think for ourselves, we don’t follow our own dreams, or we never get to discover our true passions. There are several benefits to not caring what others think: • Your life becomes a lot simpler. You no longer need to use energy or time trying to guess the reactions of others. You can make your own decisions. • You gain a sense of independence. You get back a control over your life. You take the power back. • You learn to love yourself. By doing more of what you want to do and less of what you feel you ‘should’ do, you are giving
yourself the message that you are important, that you matter. • You learn to live more in the moment. You gain freedom from future worries or past regrets, allowing you to enjoy moments as they unfold. •You learn to rely on yourself for happiness. Once you learn to stop caring about what others think you can begin to discover your own thoughts, opinions and personality. You can see that living becomes much easier when you follow your own path. Let’s be honest, you will never be able to please all of the people all of the time. So, give yourself a break, take a breath, and please yourself.
Learn To Use Process Goals By SIOBHAN O’SULLIVAN SOS Fitness
When someone comes to me to take up online coaching, one of the questions I ask is “what is your goal for the programme?” The answer I usually get is “I want to lose X amount of weight” There is nothing wrong with weight loss as a goal. However, it is an outcome goal. An outcome goal is the goal you want to ultimately hit. As a side, I don’t ever recommend a target weight to hit as a goal – a certain number on the scales does not need to define you. In order to achieve an outcome goal, you need to have process
Issue 67 July 1, 2022
goals and these are the actions you are going to take daily to hit the outcome. These are the goals you should be measuring yourself against and tracking against daily. When it comes to losing weight, some process goals could include • • • • •
Going out for a 30-minute walk 5 times a week Doing 30 minutes of weight training 3 times per week Eating a portion of vegetables with lunch and dinner every day Having a protein source at each main meal Creating a regular sleep routine and maintaining this at the weekend
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•
Doing a weekly food shop
These process goals are what I call Healthy Habits that I ask all clients to subscribe to when working with me. By doing the above every day, you will reach your goal of losing weight. For more information on nutrition coaching, check out my website https://sosfitness.ie/nutrition/
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